SHERMAN: Mannino latest of Vista’s female leaders to retire

There’s a similarity in the stories of three of Vista’s strongest women leaders.

All have retired or are retiring now, but they have left a lasting mark in the community after three decades or more of service.

The first to retire, Rita Geldert, left her job as city manager at the end of last year.

She had held that post for 14 years, but was assistant city manager for the three years previous. In all, she spent 36 years in government.

The other two, Kathy Brombacher and Barbara Mannino, retire at the end of this year.

Brombacher has headed the Moonlight Amphitheatre for 31 years, and Mannino has run Vista Community Clinic for 30 years.

Something more binds the three and their operating methods.

In each case, they have brought along an assistant and trained him to take over the top job for a seamless transition.

Geldert was succeeded by then-assistant City Manager Patrick Johnson.

Brombacher has encouraged Steve Glaudini, an actor and director, to take the helm at Moonlight, which produces four summer and three winter productions yearly.

Mannino is turning over the reins to Fernando Sañudo, himself with 24 years experience.

When Mannino started on the job Jan. 1, 1983, the clinic occupied a not-too-disguised former church on Hillside Terrace. It had been, in fact, the medical facility of choice for yours truly and other members of the uninsured Vista Press staff at the time.

But the church beat by far the clinic’s first home, before Mannino’s arrival, which she described as the converted autopsy room of the local dog pound.

During her three decades at the clinic, Mannino has seen it grow from 1,200 patient visits a month to 20,000. It now serves 57,000 individuals in the course of a year with “state-of-the-art technology.”

From a staff of 30 in the church building, the clinic now employs 540 workers and consultants, including 93 doctors, nurse practitioners and dentists.

“It’s pretty amazing to hear” about the growth of the clinic, now operating in five locations in Vista and Oceanside, Mannino said.

In the early days, Mannino juggled several roles — she was the clinic’s chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief operating officer and often handled janitorial services, too.

She started with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and a master’s degree in counseling from Memphis State University and added a master’s in business administration from San Diego State, made necessary, Mannino said, “because I suddenly realized I was running a business.”

Over the years, the clinic’s annual budget has grown from about $500,000 to $35 million.

In 2010, the San Diego Business Journal named Mannino the “most-admired CEO” in the county.

Mannino calls Geldart “a very close friend” and “a wonderful mentor over the years” allowing the clinic to forge “a strong partnership with the city of Vista.” Brombacher, she said, is “an amazing lady” who has made the Moonlight “a jewel in Vista’s crown.”

Mannino said her successor, Sañudo — the son of “very poor” farmworkers from El Centro — “is an amazingly bright, creative and passionate individual with a very quiet way” who has been learning her job for the past 12 years.

He’s stepped into her shoes twice before, Mannino said — once when she had cancer and twice when she went on sabbatical.

As for her own future, Mannino said, she’ll see more of her adopted daughter, Kim, originally from Korea, and “my two beautiful grandchildren,” Kimberly, 24, in pharmacy school, and Kevin, 28, a civil engineer. Their photographs adorn the screensaver on her office computer.

She’ll spend more time with husband Syd Harris, retired from San Diego Gas & Electric. They plan several trips with friends Richard and Shirley Cole, the former head of North County Lifeline. Mannino called Shirley Cole “my role model for retirement.”

“I think she’s worked long and hard,” Harris said, “and this is an opportunity to enjoy what she wants to do — a respite.”

Mannino said she will also become a member of the clinic’s board of trustees, now headed by Raye Clendenning, a former Oceanside school principal.